He says: "It gave me a chance as an actor to go to a place I hadn't been given a chance to go to in feature films," says Spacey.

Human portrait

Spacey in The Negotiator

He adds that the part of Lester got him "away from playing these dark and mysterious and manipulative characters that seem to be 10 steps ahead of everybody else.

"I wanted to start doing characters that are more vulnerable, much more emotionally affected by the things that happen to them, as opposed to being unaffected by things that they do to other people.

"I have never been given the opportunity to do as much comedy in a film, so I was very pleased that Sam Mendes wanted me to do it."

Spacey takes every opportunity he can to praise Mendes, and credits him with fostering an atmosphere on set that enabled a very human portrait of Burnham family dysfunctionality to emerge on screen.

Notable film credits

American Beauty

It's Tough to be a Bug (Hopper)

Bug's Life (Hopper)

LA Confidential

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil

Seven

The Usual Suspects

Glengarry Glen Ross

"Sam created an environment in which we were able to trust each other and a lot of that had to do with the fact that he would share stories of his own upbringing, of his own relationship with his parents."

Many critics see American Beauty as a cinematic treatise on the ills of American suburbia, but Spacey is reluctant to view it in these terms.

He says: "I think it's always dangerous to make blanket statements that this somehow reflects suburbia, I think that there are things going on in the subterranean levels of everyday life, in most people's lives. And whether you live in a metropolitan city or you live in suburbia, these things exist."

Future moves

American Beauty, which only cost $15m (£9.5m) to make - a modest sum by studio standards - will have an impact on Hollywood practice.

The film has already taken around $100m (£63.6m) in the US alone, and Spacey says as a result, because money is "often the thing that talks, maybe more movies like it will get made".

With John Cusack In Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil

Spacey is enjoying a streak of good fortune. He's currently on location shooting a drama, Pay It Forward, alongside Helen Hunt and fellow Oscar
nominee Haley Joel Osment.

Among his future projects is a film based on the life of American pop singer Bobby Darin who died of congestive heart failure, at the age of 37 in 1973.

Spacey, who is 40, says: "I have to do it soon
before I'm too old for the part."